Yatoro is Grinding MMR with Carry Slardar

Dota 2

10 Dec

Harrison Htet

As Dota 2 players, we only have one thing on our mind- to gain MMR. We often wonder about the MMR bracket of the top Dota 2 players, especially the TI champions, as we aspire to become one. Fortunately, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk, the current TI champion, gave an answer to some of our thoughts on his recent stream as he revealed his in-game MMR. He also showed his favourite heroes for the meta.

Yatoro at The International 2021, against IG.
Credits: Valve

The 12,000 MMR Bracket

While checking the most recent match on his stream, Yatoro’s MMR on his account can be seen on the screen. With 100% rank confidence, Yatoro is at 12,208 MMR, indicating he is part of the elite 12K MMR club. When writing, the current TI Champion is placed seventh on European server leaderboards. Above him is Ilya "Kiritych" Ulyanov, Virtus Pro’s safelaner, and below him at eighth place is Quinn “ Quinn” Callahan, Gaimin Gladiators’ midlaner.

Quinn's reaction after securing the top 3 at The International 2023.
Credits: Valve

Viewers can also see Team Spirit’s star safelaner’s most played heroes. In his recent matches, the player played the meta heroes, such as Spectre, Luna, Morphling, and Muerta. However, amongst those heroes, one of them stood out, Slardar.

Yatoro has a 100% win rate with Slardar

Slardar could be the new fish to replace Slark.
Image Source: Reddit

A glance at the player’s recent matches on the Dota 2 pro tracker shows Slardar is making a comeback to the meta, but not in his usual role. The two-time TI champion played 67 matches in the recent eight days. Although he played several heroes during that time, his two top heroes were not meta picks.

The Concept Art for Anti Mage's Personna is much different from reality.
Credits: Valve

His most-played hero was Anti-Mage. A 58.3% win rate in 12 matches could indicate that Yatoro has found something to make AM work in the current zoo meta. Slardar is his second most-played hero. He has a 100% win rate in 6 matches with the hero.

Slardar has been receiving buffs patch after patch. Despite the buffs, Slardar struggles to find his place among the meta heroes. However, the community has noticed that the hero becomes stronger with every update. Slardar is a great hero for pub-stomping in low-level pubs due to his unique skillset, which offers a stun, vision, and massive burst damage.

New Role, New Build?

Not a single soul knows what's going on inside the head of Yatoro.
Credits: Yatoro

In his Slardar matches, Yatoro has played the hero as a carry. However, his item build remains the same most of the time. He never purchased a Quelling Blade on the hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzpsOV0ahE

Instead, he often starts with a Wraith Band or Bracers. He buys both items at the laning stage before getting boots. Then, he would often get an Echo Sabre before getting an Aghanim Scepter. He also purchases Aghanim Shard and Blink Dagger on the hero, but he decides which item to get first based on the game’s situation.

Yatoro at TI10 lower-bracket finals.
Credits: Valve

He rounds off his build by upgrading his Echo Sabre, getting Silver Edge and a Black King Bar. He would sometimes get a Moonshard, a Satanic or Diffusal Blade, depending on the outcome of the game.

Skill Build, General Win rate, and Pick Rate

Yatoro has an impressive win rate on Slardar, which could be attributed to his newly developed skill build for the hero. He starts with Slithereen Crush during the laning stage, then focuses on maxing out Bash Of The Deep. After maxing out his third ability, he prioritizes maxing out Guardian Spirit before maxing out the stun.

In most matches, he would opt for a -2 second Guardian Spirit cooldown in his Talent Tree. The other talents he took from the Talent Tree include +50 Bash of the Deep Damage at Level 15 and +150 Slithereen Crush Damage at Level 20. He usually went for -4 seconds Slithereen Crush Cooldown from the Talent Tree once he reached Level 25.

At first glance, the decision from Yatoro to choose -4s Slithereen Crush Cooldown on Slardar may seem strange, but the reasoning becomes apparent when paired with Aghanim's Scepter on Slardar. This combination makes the hero extremely powerful during late-game battles, arguably making him the strongest hero in those situations.

According to Dotabuff, Slardar’s pick rate has drastically increased from 13.55% to 21.26% since the drop of Patch 7.34e.In high MMR Pubs, the hero has a 26.43% pick rate with a win rate of 54.90%.

Heroes To Avoid

There are also some struggling heroes in the player’s recent matches. Among those heroes, Templer Assassin has the lowest win rate of only 40% in 5 matches. Slark comes in second place with the same 40% win rate in the same number of matches.

ESL One Kuala Lumpur Banter.
Credits: ESL One

With the ESL One Kuala Lumpur starting soon, players are experimenting with different heroes to find the most overpowered hero for the meta. While Team Spirit are not partaking in the tournament, Yatoro’s recent match history could indicate fans have the potential to witness some next-level draft from teams at the tournament.

Featured Image Source: Valve